Introduction

Our group is interested in unemployment rates in the United States in the last decade and the effects that household income and state population have on this. Additionally, we are curious to see the role that geographical location plays. In this report we will be focusing on a dataset that provides statistics on rates of unemployment and the size of the civilian labor force in the United States from 2000 - 2019.

Summary

In order to provide a brief summary of the dataset a handful of averages over the years 2000 - 2019 were calculated. The average unemployment rate in the United States over this time period was 5.88. The average civilian labor force was 152857004. The average numbers of employed and unemployed individuals during these years were 143859167 and 8997836, respectively. Additionally, in the most recent year Alaska had the highest rate of unemployment, and New Hampshire had the lowest. This information was provided to give insight on which states performed the best and the worst in terms of unemployment rates in the most recent year.

Table

This table provides information on the unemployment rate in the United States for the past 5 years (2015-2019). The data was grouped by state to accomplish this. The table reveals a few interesting things. Firstly, it shows that from 2015 to 2019 nearly all states unemployment rates improved. Second, it reveals that Alaska had the highest rates of unemployment of any state during this time period. Lastly, it shows that Alabama’s unemployment rate in 2019 is less than half of what it was in 2015 (7.0735294 vs. 3.4397059).

State Unemployment Rate 2015 Unemployment Rate 2016 Unemployment Rate 2017 Unemployment Rate 2018 Unemployment Rate 2019
Nebraska 2.936170 2.989362 2.862766 2.856383 3.044681
North Dakota 3.314815 3.481482 2.979630 2.870370 2.775926
New Hampshire 3.363636 2.809091 2.654545 2.536364 2.518182
South Dakota 3.582090 3.444776 3.720896 3.568657 3.831343
Hawaii 3.800000 3.100000 2.500000 2.560000 2.800000
Iowa 3.800000 3.621000 3.101000 2.610000 2.711000
Kansas 3.971698 3.846226 3.379245 3.001887 2.977358
Colorado 4.076923 3.361538 2.800000 3.187692 2.843077
Vermont 4.200000 3.606667 3.313333 2.840000 2.686667
Wyoming 4.217391 5.091304 3.982609 3.747826 3.534783
Montana 4.298246 4.345614 4.110526 3.805263 3.577193
Minnesota 4.363636 4.603409 4.039773 3.569318 3.944318
Idaho 4.688889 4.308889 3.662222 3.373333 3.420000
Texas 4.780392 5.112549 4.486275 3.830588 3.513726
Maine 4.823529 4.182353 3.723529 3.547059 3.347059
Indiana 4.870968 4.466667 3.591398 3.494624 3.300000
Utah 4.900000 4.790000 4.246667 3.803333 3.323333
Delaware 5.000000 4.575000 4.575000 3.875000 3.875000
Oklahoma 5.012821 5.274359 4.385897 3.478205 3.455128
Massachusetts 5.066667 4.160000 4.026667 3.660000 3.220000
Wisconsin 5.081081 4.418919 3.594595 3.304054 3.745946
Virginia 5.134328 4.737313 4.199254 3.446269 3.194776
Ohio 5.359551 5.515730 5.265168 4.773034 4.477528
Missouri 5.491379 5.073276 4.094828 3.414655 3.657759
Connecticut 5.555556 5.022222 4.600000 4.044444 3.633333
New York 5.587302 5.111111 5.174603 4.496825 4.333333
Rhode Island 5.666667 4.900000 4.133333 3.716667 3.316667
Maryland 5.680000 4.968000 4.692000 4.352000 3.956000
Pennsylvania 5.691177 5.895588 5.192647 4.460294 4.695588
Arkansas 5.828947 4.600000 4.235526 4.153947 4.175000
Florida 5.897059 5.072059 4.445588 3.866176 3.472059
Illinois 6.116505 6.067961 5.092233 4.852427 4.420388
New Jersey 6.181818 5.318182 4.950000 4.395454 3.836364
North Carolina 6.435644 5.641584 4.897030 4.367327 4.274257
Oregon 6.459460 5.508108 4.772973 4.662162 4.378378
Kentucky 6.545454 6.499174 6.030578 5.190909 5.076860
Michigan 6.547619 6.007143 5.823810 5.121429 4.951191
Tennessee 6.666667 5.540625 4.377083 4.073958 3.982292
Nevada 6.777778 5.694444 4.683333 4.177778 3.672222
Georgia 6.818750 6.065625 5.251250 4.432500 3.901250
Washington 7.025000 6.575000 5.862500 5.727500 5.642500
South Carolina 7.042553 5.865957 4.961702 3.997872 3.334043
Alabama 7.073529 6.645588 5.041176 4.405882 3.439706
New Mexico 7.117647 7.008824 6.220588 5.264706 5.273529
Louisiana 7.400000 6.986154 5.870769 5.561539 5.578462
California 7.610169 6.905085 6.020339 5.327119 5.079661
Mississippi 7.626506 6.833735 6.001205 5.626506 6.340964
West Virginia 7.818182 7.103636 5.952727 5.825455 5.758182
Arizona 8.625000 7.500000 6.612500 6.443750 6.337500
Alaska 9.633333 9.290000 8.970000 8.433333 8.246667

Chart 1

Chart #1 displays the most recent information available regarding states’ unemployment rates. From this chart, the viewer can understand which states are currently struggling with unemployment. Based on the lengths and positions of the bars compared to the other bars, the viewer can see how much some states are plagued by unemployment compared to the others. This will allow viewers to comprehend which states need the most aid and by how significant of a margin. This chart reveals that the vast majority of states had unemployment rates under 5% in 2019. Additionally, it shows that every state had unemployment rates that were above 2%.

Chart 2

Chart #2 displays the 5 states with the lowest number of unemployed individuals in the most recent year (2019). This chart allows the viewer to see both a quantitative and visual representation of the number of unemployed individuals in each state. This makes the difference in the amount of peopled who are unemployed in each state more clear. Additionally, it shows that in this small number of states there is a lot of variety in the number of unemployed individuals.

Chart 3

Chart #3 displays an interactive map of the unemployment rate in each state in the year 2000. The states with the highest unemployment rates are colored in red, and this gradually turns to yellow as the rates gets lower. Hovering over each state reveals its name and exact rate of unemployment. The purpose of the map is to show what unemployment in United States looks like from a geographical perspective. This chart reveals that, in general, states on the west coast had higher rates of unemployment than those on the east coast in 2000. Additionally, it shows that Washington state had the highest rate of unemployment in the year 2000.